On A Clear Day First Preview- Page 6

[After Eight]

Posted: 11/20/11 at 7:14pm

Copperfield,

I too would like to see Gehling play David. He would invest the part with the kind of spark it desperately needs.




Henrik,

I understand the plot of the show I think the original, flawed as it was, was better. As for David, it's not just a question of his being too mild mannered. He's too wishy-washy and wimpy for an audience to really connect with, or care about. Ultimately, he's a drip, and one wonders why Warren would even be interested in him. The inherent failings of the part would prove a challenge for any actor. It would behoove him to add something extra to engage our interest. I don't believe Turner does this and as a result, David emerges as a nonentity, blending in with the scenery.

Connick plays another very constricted, blank-slate character, and it's hard for an auduence to connect with that. You need a really skilled actor to pull that off, and Connick isn't it.

[Copperfield2]

Posted: 11/21/11 at 12:47am

After Eight--If Gehling played David, there might be some sexual tenison there. I think then it might be believable that Mark might be somewhat attracted to David and Melinda at the same time.

I hope they can fix this show. I think there are still two weeks more of previews. They must be thinking about giving Connick more of a central role.

I actually liked Love with All the Trimmings when I saw the workshop.

But I agree the show could lose Wait Till You're 65 and When I'm Being Born Again could be tossed.

I don't think you have to save Hurry It's Lovely Up Here but I'm not sure how. Maybe give back some of David's psychic powers.

At the workshop they did not ask for any audience reaction, which surprised me. But I agree there is too much of Sarah Stiles who is more annoying than funny.

This play is looking for some male Sutton Foster to appear at the last minute to save the show.

Updated On: 11/21/11 at 12:47 AM

[After Eight]

Posted: 11/21/11 at 6:54am

Copperfield,

I have a different feeling about the songs. I think the songs from the original show should be retained and the interpolations tossed, not because of the latter's merits, or lack thereof, but because I don't think they blend well with the sound of the original ones. And they shouldn't, since they weren't written at the same time, or for the same piece or characters. But that's always the problem with additions and interpolations. They prove an awkward fit, and you can feel it.

[henrikegerman]

Posted: 11/21/11 at 7:53am

So interesting that those of us who are interested in seeing this really work have slightly different feels for what's working and what isn't. I didn't mean to oversell how much I liked it, but it did surprise me how much it grew on me after a ho hum first act, but even then I didn't think it was as awful as I'd been hearing. Then again I am certainly the first to admit that I don't have my finger on the pulse of popular tastes and haven't for some time. I've never been a big fan of this show's book and a lot of its songs. Again, I wish they would scrap many of them, but stick to my conviction that the addition of a lot of the great Lane songs not in the original is a huge plus, and that the book as a whole is a great improvement. esp in the 2d act.
Updated On: 11/21/11 at 07:53 AM

[PalJoey]

Posted: 11/21/11 at 8:06am

Here is 14 minutes and 36 seconds of Barbara Harris and John Cullum in a few songs from the original:

http://youtu.be/yyw-HEAUr40

Includes Barbara Harris performances of:

"Hurry, It's Lovely Up Here"

"On Board the SS Bernard Cohn"

"What Did I Have I Don't Have Now?"

Updated On: 11/21/11 at 08:06 AM

[After Eight]

Posted: 11/21/11 at 10:45am

" Again, I wish they would scrap many of them, but stick to my conviction that the addition of a lot of the great Lane songs not in the original is a huge plus, and that the book as a whole is a great improvement. esp in the 2d act.."

Well, let's say these added songs are great. The problem is they are not On a Clear Day You Can See Forever. So what are they doing there?

It was the same thing when songs from Pipe Dream were thrown in the stage version of State Fair. They didn't belong and sounded out of place.

[WhizzerMarvin]

Posted: 11/21/11 at 11:25am

I think a point of discussion is what do we expect when we go to see "On a Clear Day You Can See Forever."

When they created "Crazy For You" they could have still called it "Girl Crazy" and not many would know about the changes they had made. Reworked book, cut songs, added songs. When they retitled the work "Crazy For You" we didn't expect to see a faithful "Girl Crazy" on stage, but rather a new creative work that we realized would borrow from the earlier work, but would stand on its own (and one could argue surpass the original). "Crazy For You" was also billed as a new musical, not a revival.

If they wanted to do a Lerner/Lane catalog show that was loosely based on "Clear Day" they could have easily done that. Telling us this is a revival and judging from the marketing, description on the website, etc that doesn't mention the gay twist or updating, one is reasonable to expect to walk in and hear "Hurry It's Lovely Up Here" and "On the SS Bernard Cohn." I agree that these songs don't fit in so well with the tone nor plot they have created- but they are what I expect in a "Clear Day" revival. Perhaps if they had retitled the piece and really went for broke overhauling it our expectations would be different and so would our enjoyment.

[newintown]

Posted: 11/21/11 at 11:58am

After seeing this at Vassar and the Vineyard, I didn't have high hopes when offered a ticket this weekend. That could have helped, I suppose, but it didn't.

This is still a boring, witless, amateurish mess. I left at intermission, because I could tell they had done no significant work since the last viewing.

Nice that some people find something to enjoy about this, but to me, it was just a lump of dullness.

[henrikegerman]

Posted: 11/21/11 at 11:58am

After Eight, there's a long traditon of shows and operas modifying their scores, so I don't think that's a big deal. And here, the interpolated songs generally have a great deal more to do with the story, even as originally conceived, than half the numbers in the original score (unfortunately, some of those same gratuitous songs are still in the revival). However, I agree that given how radical a restructure this is, it's odd they didn't modify the title a la Crazy for You.

[newintown]

Posted: 11/21/11 at 12:16pm

Actually, henrik, none of Melinda's songs have anything to do with the story (with the vague and tortured possibility of "open Your Eyes") - they couldn't, having been written for something else. They're nothing more than show songs for Melinda.

[henrikegerman]

Posted: 11/21/11 at 12:40pm

Right, but since Melinda's story is now of a 40's singer trying to make it, those songs fit into her own story simply as her stock and trade (as much as Don't Tell Mama and Mein Lieber Herr relate to Sally's story in Cabaret). Besides Open Your Eyes, Melinda's other songs include Too Late Now and On A Clear Day (reprise).

[newintown]

Posted: 11/21/11 at 12:50pm

I have to disagree, henrik - "Don't Tell Mama" and "Mein Herr," although performance pieces and not directly about Sally, still comment upon her character in a Brechtian way (and were specifically written for Sally Bowles to sing in Cabaret).

Melinda's interpolated songs have nothing to do with her character or any dramatic situation in the show, and are completely generic - they could as easily and pointlessly be sung by anybody, anywhere.

[D2]

Posted: 11/21/11 at 12:57pm

" Telling us this is a revival..."

Except, Whizzer, that the TV ads are touting it as a NEW musical starring Harry Connick Jr.

[WhizzerMarvin]

Posted: 11/21/11 at 1:07pm

I stand corrected then with the TV ads (I've yet to see one).

Here is the synopsis page of the website-

They do concede they have brought a "new story to one of Broadway's most beautiful scores, which includes 'Come Back to Me,' 'Too Late Now' and, of course, "On a Clear Day You Can See Forever.'"

Why "of course?" Nothing else about this revival is left to "of course." The plot described is also completely misleading as to what an audience member will actually see on stage.

http://onacleardaybroadway.com/about/synopsis

[Gaveston2]

Posted: 11/21/11 at 2:54pm

"Melinda's interpolated songs have nothing to do with her character or any dramatic situation in the show, and are completely generic - they could as easily and pointlessly be sung by anybody, anywhere."

And that's the problem with comparisons to CRAZY FOR YOU (or the modern versions of ANYTHING GOES and BABES IN ARMS, that also rely heavily on interpolations). Gershwin, Porter and Rodgers & Hart wrote in a period when songs were written in the author's voice, not the character's. So interpolating songs from other shows by the same writers often works very well.

(ETA Whizzer's point about CRAZY FOR YOU above had to do with audience expectations, not interpolations. I wasn't responding to him here, but it might appear I was misrepresenting what he said. I regret my lack of clarity.)

However slight its plot, CLEAR DAY is from a different era, when Rodgers & Hammerstein had changed the "rules" by writing each song in the voice of the character. This isn't to say interpolation is impossible, but I'm not surprised by After Eight's objections. Frankly, I wouldn't expect songs from movie musicals to blend with the original score.

(Comparisons to CABARET and other later musicals influenced by Brecht are equally problematic for different reasons.)

***

As for not inviting the workshop audience to a post-show discussion, I have attended countless such sessions and have yet to hear a constructive criticism. How an audience responds during the performance is one (often valuable) thing; what audience members THINK is the problem is another. It's a rare viewer (even including people from the industry) who is qualified to discuss a show after one viewing.

(ETA2: obviously, we all discuss shows after a single viewing. What I should have said was "immediately after a single viewing without time for reflection.")

But speaking of the workshop, I thought I read pages ago that "When I'm Being Born Again" was cut. What is the narrative context for it in the adaptation?

Updated On: 11/21/11 at 02:54 PM

[henrikegerman]

Posted: 11/21/11 at 3:11pm

Newintown, allow me to back peddle. No doubt, Melinda's girl singer songs don't work any where nearly as well as Sally's. But I do think they are plucky, jazzy numbers which show her personality, in contrast with David's (theoretically, although the way Hurry It's Lovely is done in the first act - as opposed to the way it was interpreted originally and I contend should be done in the revival - isn't helping things), and her allure as a soulful and gutsy woman who is alluring to Mark, This give them purpose in the story being told and sets them apart from a number like Wait Til Your '65.

Gaveston, the interpolated songs in On A Clear Day a) serve as songs for a performer working precisely in the era of songwriting you are talking about or b) in the case of Too Late Now and Open Your Eyes arguably - and in my opinion, uncannily - suit the characters and plot of On A Clear Day and resonate with its central themes of the wistfulness of the passage of time, and the liberation of transcending convention and expanding one's consciousness
Updated On: 11/21/11 at 03:11 PM

[Gaveston2]

Posted: 11/21/11 at 5:01pm

Now I get it, henrik. Just as "Honey Bun" is an appropriate period pop song in the middle of SOUTH PACIFIC. Thanks.
Updated On: 11/21/11 at 05:01 PM

[henrikegerman]

Posted: 11/21/11 at 5:14pm

Actually, Gaveston that's a much better example than my ones from Cabaret both in period and flavor.

[Gaveston2]

Posted: 11/21/11 at 5:26pm

Of course, I'm discussing a play I haven't seen, but "Honey Bun" is one number, not Nellie's entire score. I could understand if some think the adapted Melinda doesn't really "come to life" if all her songs are period pop (while other characters sing 60s' book songs). And I can also understand why others would think that a great dramatic device.

Did you see my question about the context for "Born Again"? I thought the Greek tycoon was cut from the plot...

[Miranda3]

Posted: 11/21/11 at 5:48pm

Gaveston: I asked about the Greek character and "Born Again" earlier and a poster said that the Greek character was cut, but the song was retained and is now sung by members of the doc's class in an arrangement that reminded the poster of Hare Krishna music. I always thought the Greek was extraneous, but in light of this, which sounds pretty dreadful, perhaps he should be reinstated!
Updated On: 11/21/11 at 05:48 PM

[denali.fire]

Posted: 11/21/11 at 5:53pm

I saw this yesterday, 11/20/11.
I remember a thread on this website pertaining to the marquee when it first went up. Comments were on the negative side: "Anyone with a photoshop could have done a better job" to "It is Fugly.

The marquee foreshadowed the production.
The curtain was fugly.
The sets were fugly.
The costumes were fugly
I could go on,,,but I shall spare myself from remembering it all.

One thing that was mediocre was the singing from Mr Connick.

Folks can take this show apart and try to see all sorts of plot and character development but to what avail?

It never really worked....ever (or F-ever.)

There were three highlights to my Sunday in New York.
3. I got a rush ticket for 30 bucks so I did not lose too much money.
2. It will be a cast recording I wont buy and I shall save the $15 or so. (that is if they record)
3. I got a Bonnie and Clyde for the evening and that was my Sunday salvation.

I cant see any positive reviews for this show.
Bottom line, it was not entertaining for me at all. They showld send Bonnie and Clyde over to this show and they would know how to fix it.

DF

[Gaveston2]

Posted: 11/21/11 at 6:07pm

Oh, that's right, Miranda. I read that, too, but I fixated (unhappily) on the Hare Krishna idea and forgot about the tycoon. Since the original lyrics are very funny-old-Greek-speaks-English-with-random-and-inconsistent-syntactical-errors, I wonder if they wrote new lyrics or found a different version in Lerner's trunk.

Thanks for the reminder.

[Miranda3]

Posted: 11/21/11 at 6:21pm

I thought too the syntax of those lyrics would be jarring coming out of the mouths of psych students, unless they were channeling a long-deceased Greek--Melinios from the olden isles? Remember how the original of the song had a beat like that of Greek dance music? I wonder if that sounds Hare Krishna-esque if speeded up?
Updated On: 11/21/11 at 06:21 PM

[Gaveston2]

Posted: 11/21/11 at 7:47pm

^^^^Yes, the original of that song is very ZORBA THE GREEK, even including the bouzouki accompaniment or an imitation thereof. (In researching this post I discovered that bouzouki in the Kander and Ebb ZORBA lyric, "I hear a bouzouki..." is the instrument, not the type of song as I had always assumed. I assume its obvious that my entire knowledge of modern Greece comes from Kander and Ebb.)

Perhaps adapting the arrangement was the bigger challenge, since, as I said, the broken English of the original lyric was largely arbitrary.

BTW, that the original show included a song that appears to exist largely as a reference to a popular movie of the year before typifies the piece. It was as if Lerner skimmed through a couple of year's worth of LIFE and TIME and then wrote his libretto.

Speaking of learning something, Wiki claims CLEAR DAY is "based loosely on Berkeley Square, written in 1929 by John L. Balderston." (The claim is footnoted to a 1965 review.) Did everyone else know this? I can't count the times I've heard CLEAR DAY referred to as one of Lerner's "original" (as opposed to adapted) musical plays.

[Mr Roxy]

Posted: 11/21/11 at 8:46pm

We're seeing Private Lives in the afternoon & Clear day @ night

Never having seen the original & being disappointed with the movie, I am going into this with an open mind.The score is the salvation.

I have a really rare LP of cut songs from movie musicals.One of them is Jack Nicholson singing "Who is There Among Us Who Knows". It was apparently written for the film but cut out